In the aftermath of Spygate, reading the deluge of blog postings—especially those by bloggers outside of New England—may have led one to the conclusion that Bill Belichik was a calculated cheat who took planned risks and in the process tarnished the sacred reputation of a national treasure. This is, of course, not the first time that someone in a position of power has engaged in regrettable behavior, and it is also not the first time that the public and the media has rushed to label such behavior as the act of an unethical individual—a “bad apple.” We suggest that this rush to label such behaviors as the actions of one unethical individual often obscures rather than informs our understanding of such behavior, and more importantly it provides no lessons to help us understand and think about how to prevent such behaviors in the future. (more…)
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Like A recent study conducted by Zillow finds what they call a “Not My House! Sentiment,” where despite the evidence that 77% of U.S. homes actually declined in value in the past year, 62% of homeowners believe their own home’s value has increased or stayed the same.
How can this be? (more…)
Why are Americans so gloomy? It may be all about the yoked dog and ‘learned helplessness.’
We have a market paradox on our hands. Consumer confidence is close to a 40-year low, suggesting that the economy is in worse shape now than in times that seemed far darker, such as the early 1980s, when both inflation and unemployment crept into double digits. Yet many of the current economic indicators, including inflation and unemployment, are rather positive — or at least not as negative as consumer sentiment implies. (more…)
Dan:
I heard a portion of your interview on CBC radio (near Toronto, Canada) and was instantly inspired to buy your book, a behavior most uncommon for me. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it and have shared stories from it with many friends and colleagues. I look forward to its sequel.
So here’s a question you may wish to explore although the irrational behavior may be harder to test since it’s not an immediate response like cheating or making a purchase. (more…)
The odd thing about relativity is that we judge almost everything in terms of how it is relative to other things, and not relative to everything, only relative to a few things—mostly to the things that are close by and easily comparable….
This video was produced by Spark Creative and Diamond Consultants — thanks
Joe Windish just wrote an interesting post about Microsoft’s Mojave Experiment
In this post, Joe describes a study carried out by Microsoft on people who hated Windows Vista. The company recruited 140 Mac and PC users who thought Microsoft’s latest operating system was slow, that it crashed constantly, that it was incompatible with various devices, and that installing it would be a pain. None of these people had ever used Vista; they’d only heard from others that it sucked. When they were asked to watch a short demonstration of a brand-new Microsoft operating system called Windows Mojave, the Vista-haters were blown away. (more…)
Would you drink from this toilet?
What if I told you that this is a perfectly new toilet? Would it make a difference?
If you feel uncomfortable, it is because the meaning of the word toilet “sticks” to it. It turns out that this feeling is not just about toilets, and there are many words whose meanings sticks to them. Think about chocolate that looks like a cockroach…….
This picture was taken in the Exploratorium in SF, and it was part of their exhibit on discussing things.